We kicked off our Tuesday with an early iPad event. And what a beastly iPad we got. Apple shook things up by slotting its brand-new M4 chip into its new highest-end iPad Pro. Apple says the new device delivers 50 percent faster performance than the M2 iPad Pro. It supports dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing and hardware-accelerated mesh shading — so, better-looking games and faster graphic processing.
Engadget
But that’s only half the story. The other major upgrade is Tandem OLED, which is a display of two OLED panels on top of each other. Expect richer colors and deeper blacks, but also brightness levels that max out at 1000 nits for standard and HDR and 1600 nits for HDR’s brightest spots. This switch in display tech makes it thinner than previous iPads. Actually, it ensures the new iPad pro is (somehow) thinner than the iPod nano.
The new iPad Pro starts at $999 for the 11-inch model and $1,299 for the 13-inch, each with 256GB of storage. We’ve already got our first impressions right here.
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Flagship AI and a 120Hz OLED screen.
Engadget
The latest Pixel A-series phone typically gets announced at Google I/O. However, to avoid distractions from all the other news, Google broke cover early. Compared to the standard Pixel 8, which has a 6.2-inch screen, the 8a features a slightly smaller 6.1-inch OLED display with noticeably larger bezels. But aside from that, the Pixel 8 and 8a are almost the exact same size. The 8a uses the same 64-megapixel and 13MP sensors for its main and ultra-wide cameras as its predecessor, but the Pixel 7a was a great camera phone, so no major complaints here. Sales start next week on May 14.
OpenAI is trying to get ahead of the problem of these almost-real images circulating the internet by creating a toolset that detects images created by its own DALL-E 3 generator. The company says it can accurately detect pictures whipped up byDALL-E 3 98 percent of the time. While that sounds good, it’s loaded with caveats. The image has to be created by DALL-E, and it only successfully classified five to ten percent of images made by other AI models. It also struggles to spot generated images manually tweaked by a user.
Apple’s new iPad Pro models are its most laptop-like tablets yet. They’re the first devices powered by the company’s M4 chip, which will deliver faster performance and more AI capabilities. And, for the first time outside of the iPhone and Apple Watch, both the new 11-inch and (slightly larger) 13-inch iPad Pros will sport OLED screens. That’s a step up from the LCD and Mini-LED displays on the previous models, and it should lead to bolder colors, inky dark black levels and far better contrast.
Appole
These aren’t your typical OLEDs, either: Apple says the new iPad Pros feature “tandem” OLED displays (branded as Ultra Display XDR) for 1,000 nits of SDR and HDR brightness, as well as 1,500 nits of peak brightness. That solves the brightness issues facing earlier OLED screens, and it means you likely won’t miss the extreme brightness of Mini-LED. For an additional $100, you can also equip the 1TB and 2TB iPad Pro models with nano-texture glass, which helps to reduce screen glare.
Thanks to the OLED displays, Apple was also able to make the new iPad Pros far thinner and lighter than before. The 11-inch model is 5.3mm thick and “weighs less than a pound,” according to the company, while the 13-inch is 5.1mm thick and is “nearly a quarter pound lighter than its predecessor.” Notably, Apple says the bigger iPad Pro is the thinnest device it’s ever made.
Appole
It’s interesting to see Apple skip the M3 chip entirely and debut the M4 on the iPad Pro — that’s a sign of just how important the company considers these new tablets. The M4 chip sports up to a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. (Oddly enough, you’ll have to buy the iPad Pro with 1TB or 2TB of storage to get the fully-powered M4, the lower tier models are stuck with a 9-core CPU.) Apple claims the M4’s CPU is up to 50 percent faster than the M2, and its GPU is four times as fast. It also features a Neural Engine that can reach 38 TOPS (tera operations per second) of AI performance. That’s faster than any processor shipping today, and it’s slightly below the upcoming Snapdragon X Elite chips, which feature a 45 TOPS NPU.
As for other new hardware, the iPad Pros feature a 12-megapixel rear camera that can capture Smart HDR images. It can also identify documents and scan them more easily thanks to a True Tone flash. Apple claims it can use AI to take multiple images and merge them into a clearer scanned image. Just like the recent 10th-gen iPad, Apple also moved the iPad Pro’s webcam to the top of the tablet’s landscape orientation, which will be helpful for wider video chats. (When it was at the top of the iPad’s portrait view, it always felt like you were looking off to the side when you rotated it to landscape view.)
Apple
In addition to vastly better performance and premium OLED displays, Apple’s new Magic Keyboard ($299 for the 11-inch and $349 for the 13-inch) goes a long way towards making the iPad Pro seem like a laptop. It features a metal wrist rest, function keys and a much larger trackpad. The company claims it will make using the iPad Pro feel more like a MacBook (let’s just hope we see some iOS 18 multitasking updates to truly cement that). For the artists out there, Apple also unveiled a new $129 Pencil Pro with squeeze and rolling capabilities, as well as haptic feedback.
The new iPad Pro starts at $999 for the 11-inch model ($1,199 with 5G) and $1,299 for the 13-inch ($1,499 with 5G). Those prices are both $200 more than the previous models, yet another sign of Apple positioning these things more like notebooks.
Follow all of the news live from Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ event right here.
Apple has announced a refreshed Magic Keyboard accessory at today’s iPad event. The new keyboard is designed to specifically work with the M4 iPad Pro line, though it doesn’t integrate with the iPad Air or any other model.
When connected to the iPad Pro, it makes the tablet look like an actual laptop. Apple says “the entire experience feels just like using a MacBook.” To further assist this laptop mimicry, the keyboard boasts a larger trackpad with haptic feedback. There’s also a new function row for quick access to convenient controls, like brightness and the like.
Apple
The keyboard now features an aluminum palmrest and is available in two colors. Magic Keyboard ships with the iPad Pro next week. The keyboard costs $300 or $350, depending on which iPad Pro model it aligns with. The company also announced new iPads today, including an OLED iPad Pro and a refreshed iPad Air.
Apple at its “Let Loose” event today announced new iPad Pro and iPad Air models, and there are smaller changes compared to the previous generation devices that did not get mentioned during the event but are worth knowing about.
One of the differences worth noting is the lack of a physical SIM card slot. On the previous generation models, the cellular versions of both the iPad Air and the iPad Pro included a physical SIM card slot. In the new devices, that’s no longer the case. All cellular models now support eSIM only.
It’s a small but crucial detail for anyone looking to upgrade their iPad while sticking with their current cellular plan. Apple has not divulged the reason why it chose to remove the physical SIM slot, but it could have been a design decision related to making the devices slimmer, or a necessity to keep them slim, given all of the devices’ hardware upgrades.
Either way, the change brings parity to Apple’s latest iPad models and its iPhone, which dropped the physical SIM slot in 2022 with the launch of the iPhone 14.
Apple’s “Let Loose” event kicks off today at the unusual time of 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and we’re expecting to see an iPad-focused event with new iPad Pro and iPad Air models, updated Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard accessories, and perhaps some other announcements. Apple is providing a live video stream on its website, on YouTube, and in the company’s TV app across various platforms. We…
Apple today unveiled redesigned iPad Pro models featuring the M4 chip, Ultra Retina XDR OLED displays, a nano-texture display option, and more. The new iPad Pro offers a considerably thinner design and slightly larger 11- and 13-inch display size options. The 11-inch model is 5.3mm thick and weighs less than a pound, while the 13-inch model is just 5.1mm thick and weighs a quarter pound less …
Apple today announced that iOS 17.5 will be released to the public “soon,” following over a month of beta testing. While the software update is relatively minor, it does have a few new features and changes, as outlined in the list below. “The new Pride Radiance watch face and iPhone and iPad wallpapers will be available soon with watchOS 10.5, iOS 17.5, and iPadOS 17.5,” said Apple, in its…
Apple at its “Let Loose” event today announced a new Magic Keyboard for the latest iPad Pro models, with a thinner, lighter design. Apple says the Magic Keyboard has been redesigned to be thinner and lighter, while maintaing the same floating design. Two colors are available that match the new iPad Pro. New features include a function row with screen brightness controls, an aluminum…
Apple will be holding its first event of the year this Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time, with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube. How long will the event be? In his newsletter today, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said the video will have a runtime of “around 35 minutes.” Apple is expected to announce new iPad Pro and iPad Air models, along with updated Apple Pencil…
While the iPhone 16 series is still months away from launching, an early rumor about an all-new iPhone 17 model has now surfaced. In a research note with investment firm Haitong this week, analyst Jeff Pu said Apple is planning a so-called “iPhone 17 Slim” model that would replace the Plus model in the lineup. Pu said this model will feature around a 6.6-inch display, a slimmer design, an…
Apple today held the first event of 2024, debuting new iPad Air and iPad Pro models and accompanying accessories. While the event was faster than normal and took 40 minutes, we’ve condensed it down even further for those who want a quick overview of everything that was announced. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We’ve also got a full recap of all of the coverage…
Another Apple event is in the books and, as expected, the Let Loose showcase was all about iPad. We now have our first Apple device powered by an M4 chip in the iPad Pro, with the company surprisingly choosing to debut it there rather than in a Mac. There’s also an upgraded iPad Air that’s available in two sizes: 11 inches and 13 inches.
There are some accessory updates too, which isn’t a big shock given that an Apple Pencil was prominent in the event’s teaser image. So, without further ado, here’s a rundown of everything Apple announced at its blessedly brief Let Loose event.
iPad Pro
It had been expected for a while that any updated iPad Pro would have an M3 chip, but Apple decided to upend the expectations of many by instead slotting the brand new M4 into its highest-end tablet. Apple says the new device delivers 50 percent faster performance than the M2 iPad Pro.
Rendering performance is said to be four times faster than on the M2 Pro as well. For the first time on an iPad, Apple is bringing support for dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing and hardware-accelerated mesh shading to the Pro with the M4.
There are some power efficiencies here too. Apple says the M4 can deliver the same performance as an M2 using half the power. So, if you’re using the tablet for tasks that aren’t too strenuous, it stands to reason that the battery should last for longer.
The other major upgrade for the iPad Pro is new display tech called Tandem OLED. As the name suggests, it uses two OLED panels layered on top of each other. That means this tablet should have richer colors and deeper blacks on what Apple is calling the Ultra Retina XDR display. Apple says the brightness levels max out at 1000 nits for standard and HDR, and 1600 nits for HDR.
Despite the dual layer, the OLED panels are still thinner than an LCD display. To that end, Apple says the iPad Pro is now somehow thinner than an iPod nano (RIP, you beautiful thing), making it the company’s most slender product ever. There’s a nano-textured glass option for the first time on an iPad Pro too, but only if you opt for at least 1TB of storage.
One other notable change is that the Ultra Wide 12MP front-facing camera is now on the landscape edge. The Magic Keyboard users out there may be pleased about that tweak.
The new iPad Pro starts at $999 for the 11-inch model and $1,299 for the 13-inch, each with 256GB of storage. Add $200 to each of you want 5G cellular connectivity via eSIM.
We’ve already had a hands-on with the iPad Pro and, at first glance, the display seems like the show stealer.
M4
We have to chat a bit about what’s powering the iPad Pro: the all-new M4 chipset. The Pro is the first Apple product to use the M4, even before any Mac.
The M4 has a new CPU with up to four performance cores and six efficiency cores. There’s a 10-core GPU as well. Notably, the chipset’s neural engine is focused on machine learning and AI. Apple says the neural engine is capable of 38 trillion operations per second — it’s 60 times faster than the first neural engine that debuted in the A11 chip. AI features that the M4 will power on the iPad Pro will include real-time Live Captions, the ability to isolate subjects and remove backgrounds in videos in Final Cut Pro and automatic musical notation in StaffPad.
Odds are high that we’ll start seeing Macs with the M4 pop up later this year, which might put folks off from buying the M3 MacBook Air Apple started selling just a couple of months ago (though the company says the MBA is now the best-selling 13-inch and 15-inch laptop on the planet).
The main reason for Apple skipping a silicon generation with the iPad Pro is likely to start a transition into AI hardware ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Expect the company to talk much more about what it plans to do with AI across all its products next month.
iPad Air
Apple
The iPad Air was well overdue for an update after being stuck with an aging M1 chipset for over two years. The latest model (or models) boast an M2 chipset. Still recent enough to make it a notable upgrade from the previous Air while keeping the more powerful iPad Pro distinct.
As I mentioned, the iPad Air now comes in two sizes, the existing 11-inch form factor and the new, larger 13-inch variant. That makes the Air the most cost-effective large screen iPad as things stand. Oh, and the front-facing camera is also positioned on the longer edge of the Air now. Thanks, Apple.
The company has doubled the base storage from the previous generation to 128GB. The 11-inch model starts at $599 and the new 13-inch Air is $799. For 5G cellular connectivity, you’ll need to pay $150 extra. As with pretty much everything else Apple showed off today, the new iPad Air will drop next Wednesday.
We’ve also had some hands-on time with the new iPad Air. With the combination of the price and the various hardware updates, Apple could be onto another winner here.
Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard
Apple
There’s a new Apple Pencil around town and it has some nifty tricks up its sleeve, including haptic feedback. The Apple Pencil Pro supports a new squeeze gesture too. If you rotate the barrel, you can change the orientation of brush and pen tools, just as you would with a pen and paper.
Find My support for the first time in an Apple Pencil is very welcome, considering how easy it is too lose the dang thing if you don’t store it securely on the side of your iPad.
The Apple Pencil Pro costs $129. Preorders are open today and it ships on May 15.
Apple
Meanwhile, there’s a new Magic Keyboard that’s only compatible with the iPad Pro. This one is made from aluminum to give it a more premium feel and perhaps help users believe that the iPad Pro is the laptop replacement Apple has long envisioned its tablets being.
The latest version has a larger trackpad with haptic feedback, while there’s a row of function keys, à la a more traditional keyboard.
The new Magic Keyboard also ships next week. If you want one for the 11-inch iPad Pro, it’ll run you $300, while the larger variant is $350.
Follow all of the news live from Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ event right here.
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Apple gave the iPad Air a significant size increase at its “Let Loose” event Tuesday. You can get the new 2024 model with a 13-inch display in addition to the familiar smaller size, now 11 inches instead of 10.9. But no matter the size, the tablet runs an Apple M2 processor and features a front-facing Ultra Wide 12MP camera on the landscape edge and beefed-up speakers.
“Inspired by iPad Pro, where about half the users choose a larger screen, we created a 13-inch model of the new iPad Air, as well,” said Melody Kuna, Apple’s director of iPad Product Design. “[It] has 30% more screen real estate than the 11-inch Air.”
Despite the multi-year wait, this isn’t a tablet that needs frequent updates so it can stay at the cutting-edge of technology. The iPad Air line is made up of mid-range models, cheaper than iPad Pro but with more features than the budget iPad.
“The larger display gives users more space to express their ideas in apps like Freeform, or to see more participants in a video call on Zoom,” Kuna said. “It also provides more space to view multiple apps using Split View in iPadOS. And both displays have the same advanced features. So all your content looks absolutely gorgeous.”
11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models become even more useful
The new iPad Air comes in a new 13-inch screen size and brings enhanced performance. Image: Apple
As a mid-range model, iPad Air never offered a screen as large as the biggest iPad Pro. That changed Tuesday. The first 13-inch version joins an 11-inch one in Apple’s lineup.
At the heart of the tablet is an Apple M2 processor, which Apple said is 50% faster than the M1 chip in the 2022 iPad Air and three times faster than iPad Air with the A14 Bionic chip. The new iPad Air increases CPU and GPU speeds and boosts the Neural Engine significantly, Apple said.
Front facing Ultra Wide camera and improved speakers
Additional updates include a front-facing landscape camera with Center Stage to keep everyone in the shot.
“So it’s perfect for connecting with friends and family over FaceTime,” Kuna said. “Or joining a video conference while using a keyboard.”
iPad Air’s 12MP Wide back camera captures high-resolution photos and detailed 4K video with support for 240-fps slo-mo, Apple said.
The new Air also features “landscape stereo speakers with Spatial Audio, so it sounds great,” Kuna added.
The new Air models support Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil models, as well, including the new Apple Pencil Pro.
“Under the hood, the new Air supports Apple Pencil hover for greater precision, letting you preview your mark before you make it,” Kuna noted.
Apple also noted it sped up Wi-Fi speeds with Wi-Fi 6E in the new models. Cellular versions pack 5G networking.
What’s not changing
The new iPad Air models work with the new Apple Pencil Pro (or the less expensive USB-C Apple Pencil) and Magic Keyboard. Photo: Apple
While the 13-inch iPad Air expanded the options for consumers, it’s not accompanied by a complete redesign. The tablets look much like their predecessors with flat edges and a nearly edge-to-edge screen.
The 2024 models do not use Face ID. Instead, a Touch ID fingerprint scanner is built into the power button on the right edge.
The tablet includes a USB-C port for power and accessories, not a Lightning port. It allows it to use many peripherals designed for Mac, like external hard drives and displays.
Order 2024 iPad Air now
The new iPad Air models are available in space gray and starlight, in addition to new purple and blue finishes. You can choose storage capacities of 128GB (double the starting storage of the M1 iPad Air), 256GB, 512GB or 1TB. The tablets come with Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi and Cellular connectivity options. Each tablet comes with a USB-C charging cable and a 20-watt USB-C power adapter.
There’s no delay between today’s announcement and the 2024 iPad Air going on sale: the tablet is available for pre-order now. It will reach customers next week, Apple said.
The new 11-inch model starts at $599 and the new 13-inch base model starts at $799.
Watch the event in just 3.95% of the time. Photo: Apple
Today’s “Let Loose” Apple event overhauled the iPad lineup. Apple unleashed a new iPad Pro and iPad Air, the refreshed Apple Pencil Pro, a sleek new Magic Keyboard, and lowered the price of the regular iPad. The iPad mini was acknowledged, too.
It’s been a busy day of Apple news , but the company has plenty of other M-series devices, including the iMac. Apple slotted M3 chips into its desktop computers , and now the base version of the 2023 iMac is cheaper than ever. Thanks to a coupon at Amazon (make sure to clip it!), you can snap up an iMac with an M3 chip, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage for. The deal is available for the silver, pink, green and blue versions of the system.
Apple
Apple’s 2023 iMac with an M3 chip has dropped to its lowest price to date.
A word of warning: while this is a decent deal on the surface, we do feel that the specs of the base 2023 iMac aren’t quite up to scratch. It’s difficult in this day and age to earnestly recommend a computer with just 8GB of RAM as apps become more and more demanding. That’s why the iMac didn’t score higher than 86 .
On the plus side, the M3 chipset is very fast and the iMac’s display remains terrific. Although this is a desktop system, it’s lightweight, so it’s not too difficult to move from one room to another or prop it up on something — the inability to adjust the screen vertically is a little disappointing.
There are some caveats to keep in mind here, but if you’re looking for a nice, pretty new computer for relatively basic tasks (you’re not going to be doing much gaming or video editing on a system with these specs) and don’t mind splashing some cash, then this iMac might do the trick for you.
At Let Loose 2024, Apple revealed big changes coming to its Final Cut software, ones that effectively turn your iPad into a mini production studio. Chief among these is the launch of Final Cut Pro for iPad 2. It’s a direct upgrade to the current app that is capable of taking full advantage of the new M4 chipset. According to the company, it can render videos up to twice as fast as Final Cut Pro running on an M1 iPad.
Apple is also introducing a feature called Live Multicam. This allows users to connect their tablet to up to four different iPhones or iPads at once and watch a video feed from all the sources in real time. You can even adjust the “exposure, focus, [and] zoom” of each live feed directly from your master iPad.
Looking at Apple’s demo video, selecting a source expands the footage to fill up the entire screen where you can then make the necessary adjustments. Tapping the Minimize icon in the bottom right corner lets creators return to the four-split view. Apple states that previews from external devices are sent to Final Cut Pro so you can quickly begin editing.
Impactful upgrades
You can’t connect your iPhone to the multicam studio using the regular camera app, which won’t support the setup. Users will instead have to install a new app called Final Cut Camera on their mobile device. Besides the Live Multicam compatibility, Apple says you can tweak settings like white balance, shutter speed, and more to obtain professional-grade recordings. The on-screen interface even lets videographers monitor their footage via a zebra stripe pattern tool and an audio meter.
(Image credit: Apple)
Going back to the Final Cut Pro update, there are other important features we’ve yet to mention. The platform “now supports external projects”. This means you can create a video project on and import media to “an external storage” drive without sacrificing space on an iPad. Apple is also adding more customization tools to the software like 12 additional color-grading presets and more dynamic backgrounds.
Final Cut Pro for Mac is set to receive a substantial upgrade too. Although it won’t support the four iPhone video feeds, version 10.8 does introduce several tools. For example, Enhance Light and Color offers a quick way to improve color balance and contrast in a clip among other things. Users can also give video effects and color corrections a custom name for easy identification. It’s not a total overhaul, but these changes will take some of the headache out of video editing.
(Image credit: Apple)
Availability
There are different availability dates for the three products. Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 launches this spring and will be a “free update for existing users”. For everyone else, it will be $5/£5/$8 AUD a month or $50/£50/$60 AUD a year for access. Final Cut Camera is set to release in the spring as well and will be free for everyone. Final Cut Pro for Mac 10.8 is another free update for existing users. On the Mac App Store, it’ll cost you $300/£300/$500 AUD.
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We don’t blame you if you were totally unaware of the Final Cut Pro changes as they were overshadowed by Apple’s new iPad news. Speaking of which, check out TechRadar’s guide on where to preorder Apple’s 2024 iPad Pro and Air tablets.
There are two notable design changes for the new iPad Pro models introduced today: they are the thinnest Apple products ever released, and they are available in a new Space Black finish that debuted on the MacBook Pro last year.
Apple gave the media some hands-on time with the new iPad Pro models, and we have rounded up real-world photos and videos of the devices below.
The new 11-inch iPad Pro is just 5.3mm thick, and the 13-inch model is even thinner at 5.1mm.
There is also a new Magic Keyboard for the new iPad Pro models that features an aluminum palm rest and a larger trackpad. The keyboard is available in Black and White color options, which have Space Black and Silver palm rests, respectively.
Last, the new Apple Pencil Pro looks very similar to the second-generation Apple Pencil.
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Apple will be holding its first event of the year this Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time, with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube. How long will the event be? In his newsletter today, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said the video will have a runtime of “around 35 minutes.” Apple is expected to announce new iPad Pro and iPad Air models, along with updated Apple Pencil…
It’s been a long time since the last one, but an Apple event is finally right around the corner! While it’s anticipated to be a fairly short pre-recorded affair, we’re expecting to see the first updates to the iPad lineup in over a year and half, so make sure to tune in to see what Apple has in store. Other news and rumors this week included a couple of product introductions from Apple’s…
Apple today announced that iOS 17.5 will be released to the public “soon,” following over a month of beta testing. While the software update is relatively minor, it does have a few new features and changes, as outlined in the list below. “The new Pride Radiance watch face and iPhone and iPad wallpapers will be available soon with watchOS 10.5, iOS 17.5, and iPadOS 17.5,” said Apple, in its…
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